Lowell Perry, 69, Football Star and Ford Aide

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

Published: January 11, 2001

Lowell Perry, an all-American receiver at the University of Michigan, the first black assistant coach in the National Football League's modern era and the chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the Ford administration, died Sunday at a hospital in Southfield, Mich. He was 69.

The cause was cancer, his family said.

Perry was a sure-handed and speedy offensive end, a safety on defense and a punt returner for Michigan from 1950 to 1952, and he played on the team that defeated California in the 1951 Rose Bowl.

Joining the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1956 after playing football in the Army, he emerged as an outstanding receiver and kick returner. But in the season's sixth game he suffered a fractured pelvis and dislocated hip when hit by the Giants' star tackle, Roosevelt Grier, while carrying the ball on a reverse play.

During a 13-week hospital stay, Perry was visited by Art Rooney, the Steeler owner. ''He told me, 'Lowell, as long as I own the Pittsburgh Steelers, you have a job in my organization,' '' Perry remembered.

The following season, Perry became the Steelers' receivers coach. The N.F.L. had a black head coach, Fritz Pollard, the former Brown University star, in the 1920's. But until Perry, there had been no black coaches since World War II.

Perry coached with the Steelers for one season, then left to complete studies toward a degree at the Detroit College of Law. In 1966, he became the first black to serve as an N.F.L. broadcaster when he was hired by CBS as an analyst. He became a board member of N.F.L. Charities, a league foundation.

After serving as a lawyer with the National Labor Relations Board, Perry joined the Chrysler Corporation as a labor relations lawyer in 1963. He was a leading member of Chrysler's management team in negotiations with the United Auto Workers on a national contract in 1971 and later managed Chrysler plants in Michigan.

Perry was named by President Gerald R. Ford in May 1975 to run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws governing private employers. Having taken over an agency with a backlog of 100,000 complaints and five previous chairmen in its decade-long existence, Perry faced continued managerial problems. He resigned after 12 months and returned to Chrysler, remaining there until retiring in 1980.

He served during the 1990's as the director of Michigan's labor department and Office of Urban Programs.

Perry, a native of Ypsilanti, Mich., is survived by his wife, Maxine, of Southfield; two sons, Lowell Jr., of Southfield, and Scott, of West Bloomfield, Mich.; a daughter, Merrideth Perry Moore, of Southfield; two sisters, Winifred Wilson, of Ypsilanti, and Donna Sharp, of Southfield; a brother, Lawrence, of West Bloomfield; and five grandchildren.

While playing in the N.F.L., Perry faced bigotry.

When the Steelers arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., for an exhibition game with the Chicago Bears in 1956, the black players were barred from the team's parade in town and had to stay at a segregated hotel.

''Later that day we were practicing at the Gator Bowl, and Art Rooney, who had come on a later plane, told all of the black players, 'I promise you, this will never happen to one of my teams again,' '' Perry recalled.

When Rooney learned that the Steelers' black players were very likely to be relegated to a separate hotel for an exhibition game in Atlanta in 1957, the Steeler owner proved true to his promise made in Jacksonville. He canceled the game.

Photo: Lowell Perry after being sworn in by President Ford in May 1975. (UPI/Corbis)